Other ‘Tips and Info’ threads for other Characters are linked at the bottom.
- Ranger Veteran
- Ironbreaker
- Slayer
- Outcast Engineer
- Links to other threads
Feel free to ask or answer any questions, and I’ll add it to the main post, so it’s easier to find. I will add, remove or reword sections on request.
Introduction:
These are discussion threads, where the aim is to share and test different mechanical interactions or gameplay strategies that aren’t made clear by game descriptions or by general gameplay experience. For that reason I will not be focusing on breakpoints too heavily.
Links to other guides:
These are links to builds and in-depth information on every Career and Weapon. My guides are more to share information and mechanic interactions that aren’t obvious or take some testing:
For in-depth guides with specific stat builds and breakpoints, check out Sleezyrats and Royal w/ Cheese’s guides on Steam guides:
Steam Community :: Guide :: Tweaking Your Build (Supplement to the Build Guides)
Movement Speed techniques with all Characters/Careers/Weapons:
Steam Community :: Guide :: In-depth Movement Guide
1. Ranger Veteran:
1. Ranger Veteran:
Health: 120 (with 20% Health on Necklace) - 135 (with WPoS Passive)
Cooldown: 120s (108s with 10% CDR) - 2s (removed per Master of Improvisation)
Cooldown Reduction On-Hit: 0.3s
Cooldown Reduction On-Damaged: 0.3s
Tips:
- Potential 35% chance not to use Heals/Pots/Bomb if you use the Traits
- Potential x?% Damage Reduction with Exuberance and Drunken Brawler
- He has 10% chance not to consume items (potential 35% with the Healers Touch Trait on Necklace), so let him carry Bandages and Bombs, and let him heal people when there’s an abundance of them. Test his luck and see how many duplicate heals you can get
- Ranger’s Parting Gift buff will stay forever if you do not throw a Bomb, allowing you to double Bomb on your next Career Skill use
- Drunken Brawler stacks amount to 9% Attack Speed and 12% Damage Reduction a Potential x?% Damage Reduction with Exuberance and 17% Attack Speed with the Exhilarating Vapours Career Skill Talent
- Exhilarating Vapours gives a total of around 33 Health, due to the buff lasting longer than the Career Skill effect
- Throwing Axes with Last Resort causes your final thrown Axe to benefit from Last Resort
- Shield Slams do not grant Exuberance
- Stamina/Movement Speed is viable on Trinket, due to Move Speed tech with certain Melee Weapons & No Dawdling
General opinion:
Ranger Veteran can be played as with support or damage focused builds to great effect. Regardless of whether he builds for it or not, he is the master of making use of any Items, due to his Passive chance to duplicate them.
In melee he’s not incredible strong, but has some of the best Ranged Weapon choices there are. Playing with a Shield to create space for reloads and Ranged spam is the playstyle I prefer.
Most of his Ranged Weapons are good, except the Throwing Axes, which swallow up a lot of your build and don’t really feel like it was worth it- the speed at which you get them back is also too slow. Other than that, his Ranged builds are some of the strongest in the game; Grudgeraker, Crossbow (Hunter), Masterwork Pistol and Handgun don’t require a huge amount of skill, but can easily compete for high damage and effectiveness.
For the Crossbow (Hunter) Gungni’s Cunning build, make sure to aim down your sights (right click), as much as possible for the inherent 10% Crit Chance.
His more supportive builds are extremely strong too. Item dupes, Attack Speed, Damage Reduction, Temporary Health, Pots or Bomb drops, Ammo drops and a knockback. Just think about what the builds in your group will need.
Synergy:
Any melee heavy group due to his low melee damage. Groups that need temporary health, or who can benefit from Pots/Bombs/AS and DR buffs.
Using Grungni’s Cunning with other Shotgun type Ranged Weapons in the group is one of the best group compositions in the game. Especially a Zealot or BH with the Griffon-Foot.
Questions:
**
2. Ironbreaker:
2. Ironbreaker:
Health: 180 (with 20% Health on Necklace) - 203 (with WPoS Passive)
Cooldown: 120s (108s with 10% CDR)
Cooldown Reduction On-Hit: 0.25s
Cooldown Reduction On-Damaged: 0.5s
Tips:
- Potential 52.5% Power with Barrage/Hunter and Drengbarazi Oath (67.5% BoG/62.5 RES)
- Potential 40% Attack Speed, when you’re hit with Vengeance, and 70% total (SS and AS)
- Potential 70% Stamina Regeneration with Miner’s Rythm
- Potential 8 Stamina Shields
- Under Pressure fires quickly enough that it’s worth using a Crit Hunter build on Drakefire Pistols
- Rune-Etched Shield generates 10% Power to every person in your group. Recommended for a Shield, Trollhammer Torpedo and Drengbarazi Oath combo
- A Cooldown Reduction build with The Rolling Mountain and Drengbarazi Oath will allow you to quickly build your Career skill back, especially with Greataxe, Coghammer and Dual Hammers. He also has 0.5 second Cooldown Reduction per enemy hit
- With the CDR build, Speed and Strength Pots can be as good as Concentration Pots, due to CDR On-Kill
- Vengeance stacks only start building while you’re in combat
- Gains 50% Damage Reduction during his Career Skill Impenetrable (80% total with his Passive)
- Gromril Armour is not removed from venting Overcharge or taking fall damage
- If you’re tanking, stay close to your team. If you’re off alone slamming enemies, your team are left vulnerable, and the space/CC you’re creating isn’t being made use of
- Venting damage is not lowered by Damage Reduction
General opinion:
Effective as both a DPS and a tank. Using a Shield and tanking in tight corridors is one of the more fun things to do with Ironbreaker, as THP on Stagger allows you to trade with high Elite density, while CCing everything in front of you.
He works with all of his available Ranged Weapons, with Drakefire Pistols (Barrage/Hunter), being his best melee DPS option. Flamethrower or Trollpedo are very good too.
In terms of melee, Greataxe can work with both On-Kill (Smiter) or On-Stagger (Enhanced Power). Using Greataxe with a Cooldown reduction build and Drakefire Pistols is the highest damage I’ve been able to get out of him. Remember that the Light 3 has 10% inherent Crit Chance for Swiftslaying.
When using a Shield stay close to your team, as standing alone leaves your group vulnerable, and doesn’t let anyone make use of your Stagger. You should be deciding where the frontline is and holding it. If you’re standing alone somewhere knocking rats over, you’re defeating the point of using a Shield.
Everything can be made to work with 1H Axe and Mining Pick being his weakest Melee Weapons. They’re really difficult to make use of.
Ironbreaker’s Ranged options are all worthwhile and viable.
Ironbreaker can provide an insane amount of support as a tank, by using Rune-Etched Shield, Drengbarazi Oath Talent, and the Off Balance Trait on a Shield. Combining this with Masterwork Pistol or Trollpedo makes him a great Boss killer too. Consider how much Power your teammates are giving, e.g. Grail Knights Quest, and then you give 10% more with 5 stacks.
Synergy:
Ironbreaker has good synergy with any high DPS glass cannon Careers. Shade especially can make use of his Career skill, due to her ability to one-shot man-sized enemies from behind.
As his CDR DPS builds, any Career that can give melee buffs. WHC (CDR-Crit) is especially strong due to it’s ability to feed 2H Weapons Swiftslaying procs.
Questions:
3. Slayer:
3. Slayer:
Stats:
Health: 150 (with 20% Health on Necklace) - 169 (with WPoS Passive)
Cooldown: 40 (36 with 10% CDR)
Cooldown Reduction On-Hit: 0.5s (1s with Adrenaline Surge)
Cooldown Reduction On-Damaged: 0.1s
Tips:
- Potential 57.5% or 67.5% (A Thousand Cuts) Attack Speed
- Potential 60% Movement Speed
- Adrenaline Surge CDR Buff lasts as long as Trophy Hunter is on max stacks.
Provides 200% Cooldown Regen, increasing the amount of CD Regen per hit or damaged - Opportunist effects his Career Skill
- Grimmir’s Focus provides a flat 40% damage reduction
- Crunch, on Cataclysm, can stagger SV/Mauler/Beastgor in all movesets (including their overhead attack and Beastgor charge). It can stop Berzerker/Monk even during combo attacks. It can Stagger Packmasters when it’s not in the hook animation or when it already hooked someone. It can stop Ratling/Warpfire Rats firing. For Chaos Warriors, only the overhead and running attack cannot be interrupted
- Dual Wield Heavy Attacks give 2 stacks of Trophy Hunter
- Dawi Drop requires good timing to make the most out of
- Dawi Drop works with Bombs: throw the Bomb and then use your Career Skill while it’s in the air
General opinion:
Slayer is just a great melee, with Talents that do different things, but don’t really change his playstyle as much as other Careers. The biggest downside to Slayer is becoming completely stuck against Berserker/Monks and Shield enemies with some builds, if alone. Where Warrior Priest and Grail Knight, would just switch to a Shield Weapon and escape, Slayer can only try to outkill, and only certain Weapons can make that happen, it’s why I think he’s the weakest of the 3, despite being very good.
It’s recommended to take a 1H Hammer or 2H Hammer as a backup Weapon depending on your build, with a high amount of Stamina and BCR, as he doesn’t get any from Talents/Passives. Parry and Opportunist are great on him, due to high Melee Stats.
Opportunist applies to his Career Skill Stagger, and works well with Crunch.
All of Slayer’s Talents are viable, it just depends what playstyle you want.
While you’re able to play pretty much solo as Slayer, remember to help your teammates out if they’re in trouble. Being a Ranged Career with low Stamina count and watching a Slayer off in the distance while you’re struggling to get any ranged damage out, or deal with Specials, is frustrating.
Dawi-Drop works with both Throwing Axe and Bombs, if timed well. It’s a free Elite kill with Throwing Axes, and a lot of Boss/Chaos Warrior damage, if it Crits. It’s also good with 1H Weapons to guarantee Elite kills for On-Kill THP and Special kills.
Synergy:
Duals Axes have a lot of synergy with Handmaiden’s Stamina Regeneration Aura, especially if she’s using a Shield to CC everything for you.
WPoS who bubbles you a lot is really good for the Move Speed build.
Slayer can pretty much play solo, but a Special killer and someone who can CC or buff him benefits him most.
Questions:
4. Outcast Engineer:
4. Outcast Engineer:
Health: 125 (with 20% Health on Necklace) - 135 (with WPoS Passive)
Cooldown: 60s
Cooldown Reduction On-Hit: 0s
Cooldown Reduction On-Damaged: 0s
Tips:
- As of 26/11/2020, Heat Sink with Leading Shots has no interaction with the fully charged Drakegun
- Leading Shots works on the Crank Gun and improves Elite/Special/Boss damage
- Leading Shots will eat Bombs, while giving NO benefit
- Leading Shots removes the random crit on range weapon, no longer affected by Crit Chance, and making it a guaranteed crit every 4 shots(25% Crit Chance)
- Combined Arms gets 2 stacks from dual wield Weapons Heavy Attacks (Dual Hammers)
- Bombardier deals good Boss damage. If you can avoid Shrapnel in any way, Grenadier on Trinket synergises really well
- With Bombardier, focus on picking up Incendiary Bombs, rather than Blast Bombs
- Piston Power Staggers Bosses
- Piston Power works with the Grudge-Raker shove, but not the Trollhammer Torpedo shove
- Armour Piercing Slugs allows you to shoot through shields
- Armour Piercing Slugs works with the Crank Gun
- Armour Piercing Slugs works with the Trollhammer Torpedo, despite saying ‘Non-Explosive Ranged Attacks’: aim at the lower part of Bosses, so you hit them and then the floor by their feet for two explosions
- Armour Piercing Slugs works with the Drakegun
- Armour Piercing Slugs gives double Trait ammo back (e.g. double headshot gives 2 ammo back with Conservative Shooter)
- When you switch to the Crank Gun, holding right click to wind it, will increase the initial shooting speed by 20%, whereas if you shoot with left click it has to wind up to a higher fire rate
- When you are holding the Crank Gun, you have 1 dodge count and 110% dodge distance
- Any attack speed bonus also increases Crank Gun firerate
- Ablative Armour: each damage taken will remove 5% of damage reduction, including self-inflicted damage like venting a drakefire weapon. It’s almost useless to reduce multi-instance damage source (gas, blight storm, surrounded by horde etc.)
- Cooldown Regeneration, Cooldown Reduction, Resourceful Combatant and Resourceful Sharpshooter all generate Crank Gun ammo, with stacks. It’s really not worth using though
- Venting damage is not lowered by Damage Reduction
- Gunsmith (Passive) does not give 50% more ammo to Drakefire Weapons
- When using Dual Hammers, use Stagger THP, and Piston Power, for the most THP generation (Light → Heavy)
- Piston Power can be triggered right before it comes back on cooldown, giving you two uses of it
- Trollhammer Torpedo works with Grenadier and Conservative Shooter
- Stamina/Movement Speed is viable on Trinket, due to Move Speed tech with certain Melee Weapons
General Opinion:
He’s incredibly glass cannon, but you can deal a lot of damage if you’re enabled by your team. Although he’s very team oriented, using a Shield Weapon however, will allow you to survive alone in bunker spots for longer. OE’s reload times and constant Cranking mean you need to constantly be aware of your surroundings and positioning.
When using Shield Weapons with Ablative Armour, Barkskin can make you much tankier due to how much Temporary Health Shield slamming generates.
Superior Gaskets and Innovative Ammo Hoppers, are best for minimizing Cranking, as it can be frustrating and leave you vulnerable.
While using the Drakegun, use the Crank Gun on Hordes with Specials in and Drakegun on Hordes without. With Innovative Ammo Hoppers you have untlimited ammo if you land Special kills. While very stationary, Drakegun on Outcast Engineer is one of the higher AoE DPS output builds in the game, due to all of the Power available to him.
With the Drakefire Pistols, Crit Chance stacking, Combined Arms, and Hunter are recommended. And due to the double stacks you get on Combined Arms, Dual Hammers are recommended.
The Masterwork Pistol synergizes well with Leading Shots, as you can deal a lot of damage to Bosses with the alternate fire, also granting additional damage to the Crank Gun.
Armour Piercing Slugs is best with Grudgeraker, due to it’s ability to help you clear Specials through Hordes, and it causes Conservative Shooter to give two ammo back with piercing headshots. Leading Shots with Scrounger doesn’t generate a lot of ammo back, and Crit% on Items doesn’t stack with it. Combined Arms can work, if you want a more melee-focused build.
Handgun works well, and you can use Combined Arms to get higher damage on Chaos Warriors and Bosses.
Synergy:
Outcast Engineer synergises well with any Melee heavy group, so that he has more safety.
Questions:
Combined Arms vs Leading Shots with the Flamethrower? Armour Piercing Slugs?!?!?
While Leading Shots allows you to get Hunter up quickly, Combined arms will allow you to reach a max of 40% Power with Barrage (potential 97.5%), while Hunter is only 25% (potential 82.5%). You use Barrage, because it’s more consistent than Hunter due to lack of Crit Chance, and it also gives you Power VS everything, unlike Hunter, which gives Power VS the specific enemy armour type you Crit. Leading Shots is still really good for benefitting the Crank Gun too.
Armour Piercing Slugs works with the Drakegun and can Cleave through Elites, Bosses and Shielders. For higher difficulties that’s insanely good. It obviously also benefits the Crankgun.
Does Cooldown Reduction on Trinket reduce the time it takes to reload?
Cooldown Reduction does give Crank Gun ammo, but it’s an almost unnoticable amount. RC and RS do work, but the build is not recommended. Grail Knight/Foot Knight Cooldown Regeneration does nothing, due to Engi’s Career Skill not regenerating through melee hits.
What is Armour Piercing Slugs interaction with Flamethrower/Drakefires?
It works with both, allowing you to Cleave through Elites, Bosses and Specials.
Do Shrapnel or Explosive Ordinance still work with the Trollhammer Torpedo or was it patched? (training dummys numbers show no difference)
Grenadier works, others don’t.
5. Links to other discussion threads:
5. Links to other discussion threads:
Bardin:
Saltzpyre:
Kerillian:
Kruber:
Sienna:
